My Beautiful Tree

This tree is the one I can see from where I sit in my craft room.  It is a liquidamber and is a very good guide to the seasons.  Normally, it is all brilliant red by now and starting to drop its leaves.  in fact, the last couple of years, it has turned completely by the end of August.  This year, however, it has only just started to go reddish, so autumn is at least one month later than last year.  I will take other photos as things change and post the best.  How is your Autumn going, or Spring if you are down under.

WOYWW - 174

I cannot remember when I last saw the whole of my cutting mat, but it is a long time.  Not only that but I have actually put away most of the stuff that usually lives there, in fairly sensible places, although I have now lost one complete batch of melt dust. and the papers that go with it.  I do have faith that it will turn up.  Anyway, this clear state of affairs did not last very long, as I now have all the things I need to teach a friend on Thursday.

I now have a large tray in situ, containing all the things I need (I hope), but she is coming to me son it will not take too long to find anything I have forgotten - as long as I do not need the melt dust.  These photos were taken about 17 minutes after midnight so I think they count as Wednesday.  We shall be working with the Clarity Oast House kit, and trying different methods of colouring and creating the background.  If you look, you can see my crib sheet that I have worked with today to give us a start.  I was not too sure about the correct colour of hops so I downloaded a picture  and printed it for our use. 

You might also pick out the ink pads ready and the Splodge mat for use with the brayer.  I also dug out just 6 Promarkers.  I want to keep the palette simple and very limited.  We shall also have a go with a make up brush, and sponges to get the background right.  I hope it all works out and my friend has fun, which is what it should be all about. 

I am off to bed now, but I hope to meet you all at Julia's Place for a coffee and a nice piece of cake maybe a bit later, and a wander round to see what you are all doing this week.  See you soon.  xx

Splodge mat again - I love it

I am having a great time at the moment, playing with the brayer and my new Splodge mat.  The mat is so good at saving inks and allowing the brayer to produce much better blending.  I spoke in my last post about leaving the ink on the mat overnight and being able to use it again in the morning.  This is exactly what I did on this card, and the inks were perfectly useable, just as if they had come straight from the ink pad.

Recipe:-

Clarity silk card

Clarity silk paper

Adirondack ink pads - Juniper, Cloudy Blue, Stonewashed, and Pitch Black

Big and Juicy - one with a good sun yellow in it.

Clarity stamps - Small Village Set, tree from Cottage Set

Digi "stamp" of church

 Limited palette of Promarkers

Kitchen roll

cling film

Speedball brayer

moon mask punched from a post it note

I needed a stamp of a church and was quite shocked to find I had not got one anywhere, so I managed to borrow the large church stamp made by Clarity (I have now ordered my own).  I stamped it onto good white card, scanned it into the computer, and reduced the size digitally to get one that would go with the mini village set.  I had to work out exactly where I wanted it on the card before printing it onto the Clarity silk card, and leaving it overnight to dry thoroughly.  Then I just needed to place all the other images where they looked good (I did try it all on copy paper first).

I loaded the brayer with Cloudy Blue and with the moon mask in place, put the sky in.  Then I darkened it slightly by changing to Stonewashed and repeating it.  The hills and mounds were done using a randomly torn piece of paper, and a make up sponge to apply the Juniper, trying to ground the church, the trees and cottages as I went.   I removed the mask and added a little yellow to the sun with a sponge.

Once the ink was totally dry, I added a little colour with Promarkers, keeping to a very limited palette of colours.  The edge was done with a ruler, upside down, and a Slate Promarker.

The backing paper was created with the brayer, Juniper and Stonewashed.  I added two stripes, overlapping and random to a piece of Clarity silk paper.  Then all I needed was to get a large piece of cling film, spraying it with a mister and scrunching it down (wet side down) on to the inked paper, scrunching it round a little to blend the stripes.  Then it went on another surface to dry naturally (That surface was another pile of things to sort out - not the clear tidy cupboard it should have been).  After that, both the topper and the backing paper had a good polish up with a piece of dry kitchen roll to bring up the shine, before mounting it all on a plain white card.

Like most of my cards I can see loads of ways to improve this card, but it is all part of a leaving curve, and good fun.  Hope you like it, and if you want to see the expert at these techniques, just watch Barbara Gray - she is a legend.

Splodge mat, brayer and Clarity

 This is my second post of the day.  If you want to see what is on my desk today, just scroll down to my WOYWW post below.

After watching Barbara Gray using and demonstrating the Splodge mat, I decided it was a no brainer - I needed it to save me money.  It might seem strange to spend money to save money but I reckon this bit of kit will do just that.  I know you can run the excess ink off the brayer onto copy paper and even use that as backgrounds for future projects, but it does not work if you need to blend two colours together to get the shade you need.  The Splodge mat does work for that.  

This card was done following Barbara's classroom teaching, with three stripes of different colour.  I didn't have the pinky colour I needed, but I was able to blend two colours from a Big and Juicy without damaging the ink pad.  The other big advantage showed itself when I was interrupted and had to leave the project overnight.  I did not have time to clean the mat, which worked out really well.  When I came back to it the next day, I tried the ink left on the mat and it was still useable and I did two more toppers and an insert, without going back to the mat.

The stamps are Clarity - the Birdcage set, which are very adaptable.  I thought very hard before buying yet another set of stamps, but these are really worth the outlay with so many elements to play with.  I stamped with Adirondack black onto Clarity silk card, and coloured with Promarkers.  I used the slate Promarker to draw the dark edge around the topper, with the ruler upside down so that the chisel end of the marker could slide tightly underneath and stay straight.  Once it was dry, I polished the whole thing with a piece of kitchen paper to bring up the shine.

The background of the card was achieved with the same three colours in random stripes on Clarity paper.  Then I sprayed a piece of clingfilm, and scrunching it down onto the top of the brayering and moving it around a little, before leaving it to dry naturally.  I did two backgrounds this way and I really love the "watermark" effect it produced..

I had three different toppers and two backgrounds to choose from.  In the end, I chose my third favourite topper and married it up with the background I had not really liked to begin with.  The background was used as a wrap on a piece of Centura Pearl (glued with Crafters Companion Stick and Stay), with the topper glued in the same way.

The insert used similar techniques, and the same set of stamps.  The supersmooth white paper was lightly brayered with the ink left on the Splodge mat, and the wording was computer generated - my writing is dreadful.

Just a little warning if you treat yourself to a Splodge mat - clean it with water only.  NEVER use baby wipes.

WOYWW 173

I have been a very bad blogger in recent months.  I have very good resolutions to do it each week, but they fail, mainly due to life.  I need extra days in the week to keep up.  Anyway, this is my workdesk this morning.  I actually tidied up after my last piece of work was finished - shock, horror, that is unusual, but I assure you I am feeling quite well (apart from severe stiffness following yesterday's visit to the chiropractor). 

I said I tidied up but I did leave a couple of things out as they will be needed in today's project.  After hearing so much about the Splodge Away mat and watching Barbara Gray using it, I fell and got my own.  I love it!  (Julia, I hope you do not think this is advertising - I certainly do not profit from this apart from saving my ink and my copy paper.)  I loaded ink from the brayer onto the mat, and did the background for the card, which was great.  Then I was disturbed so left the whole lot just sitting there overnight.  When I went back the next day, I thought I would just try to see if the ink still on the mat was useable - it was!  I did another card topper and two inserts with what was left - a real saving on ink and effort.  It also meant I did not have to try to recreate the colour I had mixed first.

By the way, that is not chocolate ice cream on my desk, just the container I saved and now use for the bits and pieces I keep losing on my desk, such as the glue runner, pencil, craft blade, my most used punches.  You know the sort of things I mean, the general dross most of us have hanging around.  Just noticed that my blade is not in it, so failure once more.

I am hoping to keep my desk fairly clear for at least a couple of weeks as a friend is coming round for a lesson or two on stamping techniques, and we need the maximum room in which to work.  Can I keep it up?  Time and future photos will tell.

I hope this post is going to work as it is the first time I have used the new "improved" blogger layout, which I don't like very much.  Anyway, I am off now to see what everyone else is doing this week at Julia's place (by the way, I have added Julia's blog to the list of best crafting blogs on the latest voting thingies).  Are you going to come along with me to see everyone else?  You can bring your mug of coffee or whatever else you choose.

Clarity Challenge for July

This is the first of the Clarity Challenges I have taken part in, being a very new member of the Clarity club.  The brief was to use the Stampstamps, birds and some shrink plastic.

This pushed me to actually buy the Stampstamps, which I had been looking at for some time.  The picture were all bird pictures I had on the computer anyway,  I just measured them carefully so that they would fit inside the stamps when they arrived, and laid them on top of each other, using My Craft Studio to do the computer manipulation.  Then it was a case of positioning the stamps over the top of the pictures with the aid of masks to get the right overlay.   It did take six attempts to get it about right.   The Queen's head was taken from a real stamp and enhanced a little to make it more gold (to fit in with the gold medals achieved at the Olympics)

I used plain but smooth white card, then I brayered with Adirondacks to create the shadowing and shading around the edges.  I still need a lot more practice to get that right in the future.  Still, that is loads more time to play - goodie, goodie, lots more fun.

This was my very first attempt at shrink plastic and I was very wary of the technique and decided to follow Barbara Gray's advice and do it in the oven.  I used the Kingfisher stamp kit - the branch, the leafy twig and the bird itself.  I stamped the image with Stazon and left it to dry.  Then I coloured it with Derwent watercolours and Derwent Metallic watercolours.  The cutting out was a little challenging but worthwhile taking the time.  I put the resulting bits into a foil takeaway tray, quite a deep one, lined with baking parchment and then put it into my top oven (not the fan oven) for about 30 seconds until it had done its shrinking work.

After I had mounted the central topper on the square card, I used Pinflair Gel to attach the kingfisher and the branch at the top.  It may not be perfect, but I was quite pleased with this first attempt, and I hope it does justice to Barbara Gray and her wonderful stamps.

WOYWW - 168

Oh dear, it is worse than ever.  Never mind the push back or anywhere else.  The mountains are about to fall.  Added to that is the fact I have now lost so many stamps amongst the detritus, so a good sort out and put away is called for.

This is the tidiest bit - it gets worse.  Apart from the panic to get this month's cards done, I suddenly realised we are about to go on holiday and I have a mountain of  cards to do for early September, a load of sewing to shorten trousers for Geoff (denim jeans), baking to take away ..... and I WANT TO PLAY with my stamps.  That is one reason you can see my total stock of Adirondacks on show with a couple of Big and Juicys thrown in, post it notes with stamping masks cut out and a lot more.

Just turn to the left a little and it gets worse.  I won't bore you with a list of what you can find there, and just let you browse for yourself.  Just be careful - it might all fall down.  I will just point out the camera battery in the foreground.  You might know that as soon as I get my camera out to take a picture, the battery died.

In case you are wondering why I am showing you the shameful mess in which I was working (playing) yesterday, just take some time to pop over to Julia's place  where you will find loads of other desks to browse through each Wednesday.  I have been missing in action for a couple of months, due to lack of time.  I felt it was unfair to accept lovely comments from others when I could not find the time to return the visits.  Hopefully, things have calmed down a little and I will certainly do my best to get round as many desks as possible this week.

Pretty Petals - Homework Part 2

These cards were done in a similar way to the previous post, using the Clarity Pretty Petals Kit.  Instead of using an ink pad to colour in the petal shapes, I did them with several layers of Sakura pens to give them more of a shimmer.  I thought it suited the butterflies to be glittery too, and I enjoyed getting the glitter pens out again after forgetting them for so long.  

The sentiment is another Clarity stamp.  I found several of them that I really liked in the half price sale, and this is one of them.

 This last card is actually an easel card.  Like all the others, it was done on ordinary white card, but with this last one, I gave it a good dose of Crafters companion Spray and Shine after I had finished.  I did brayer the corners lightly to give it a halo effect before spraying.  Then I mounted it on black card and then onto the gold coloured card to match the flower. 

I was quite chuffed to see all my Homework cards shown on this month's Classroom show and to hear Barbara's comments about them.  It did give me quite a lift, so thank you, Barbara.

Pretty Petal Kit - Homework

I actually managed to get some homework cards done for the Clarity Stamps Pretty Petals Kit.  When I first saw this set, I knew it had lots of possibilities, so I finally bought the bullet and ordered it.  When it arrived, I was a little snowed under and did not have the time to play that I would have wished for.  For those of you who have not seen this set, it consists of 7 petal shapes, two of which are outlines, and a large butterfly (suitable for using with fusible film and fibre). 

This first card was done with one of the Big and Juicy ink pads.  The petals were just stamped as the border on the left, using the dotted border and the solid filler.  When they were dry, I brushed them over with Irridescent medium.  The humming bird is another Clarity stamp I found in a shop ages ago, and it just seemed to fit this project, although it took two days to find it.  Needless to say, it was exactly where it should have been, six inches from my hand.  Once it was dry, I used the Promarker thin black to outline it.

The second card also used the Pretty Petals, and was stamped with another Big and Juicy.  I used the solid outliner and infilled with the solid filler petal for the leaves.  I used the thin Promaker to draw in the stem and the leaf veins.  The flower itself needed some masking with post it notes to fit the petals together.  The sepals (the outside green bits - I had to look up the right name) were filled in with the dotty petal shape,  I actually used a purple Sakura pen over the top of the purple ink on the petals.

I will show the others I did later this week - when I can find what I have done with the photos.

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I love this stamp

This card is really a change ton the one I posted earlier, but I needed to add a bit more to it for our grandson.  All but one of these stamps are from the Clarity range.  The odd one out is the Happy Birthday and it shows.  The stamp nearly tore in two when I tried to remove it from the acetate. 

I found the spaniel in the 1/2 price sale at Clarity and knew I had a good use for it.  Again I used the Vintage Photo Distress ink pad, and coloured it in with a water brush.  The ball was sponged through a punched circle with a make-up sponge.  I used a larger sun/moon when I was brayering the background.  The tree was one of the split trees, and I used one of the leaf sets to decorate it (not to mention to cover up a couple of ink marks which appeared because I failed to take enough care with dirty fingers).  I did try to create a cloudy effect but that did not work, probably because it was just ordinary card rather than Clarity card.  The birds were from the Harbour kit, and stamped with second generation ink, as was the tree and twigs.

I might be in trouble for this card as our grandson desperately wants a dog, which is not a real possibility.  He will have to make do with coming to ours and walking one of our dogs. 

Quality counts!

I decided it was time to get back to the blog again, just as our internet access vanished,  Virgin had just told us that our speed was being updated to double speed, then ..... nothing.  Still, it is working again for the moment. 

Unfortunately, I could not upload my entry for Less is More as the cut off time had been and gone.  It was supposed to be a flat card with Fur or Feathers. 

The card will not be wasted as I know exactly who to send it to.  The spaniel was from the Clarity Stamp sale, and, as we have two working cocker spaniels, I had to have it.  I already had the tree which is another from Clarity.  I stamped the dog with Vintage Photo Distress ink, and used a water brush to shade it in.   Then I masked it off, and stamped the tree into the background.  The ball was done using a hole punched into.a small scrap of paper, a make up sponge and the Vintage Photo again.  That makes it easy to shade the ball to give it shape. 

The sentiment is just right for the look you get from a spaniel, but the quality of that stamp leaves a lot to be desired.  It was from a set of free see-through stamps I acquired, and partially tore through as I removed it from the backing.  I have been used to the sturdy firm quality of Clarity Stamps and treated in the same way, with dire results.  It was also much harder to get a satisfactory image when stamping with it.  Clarity may not be the cheapest, but they are definitely the best I have used.    Quality counts!

Quality is what I was thinking about when I dug out my elderly sewing machine out to do a bit of mending (it was bought new by my father for Mum (with all the attachments, and I persuaded her that she needed a new one when I got married - the new one was never as good or reliable).  It is a vintage Singer, made in 1949 in Kilbowie, Clydebank, weighs a ton, and just works.  It is electric with a knee lever to operate it.  All we have ever done to it is a bit of light cleaning and a little lubrication - oh and Geoff made up a new power cord when the original perished. 

However, today things went a little awry when the drive belt started throwing bits of green rubber at me, and the speed dropped drastically.  A new belt is required - horror.  Not bad, though, when you consider the original has lasted from 1949 till today.  and Singer still make belts for this machine.  As I said, quality counts.  When new, it cost the huge sum of £17-7s-6d, when an average month's wages would have been around £40.  (There is one on Ebay at the moment for £85) .  Hopefully, the new belt will arrive in a couple of days and I can get going again with this family heirloom.  (I bet the new belt does not last as long)

Although I have not blogged for ages, I have dipped in and out of many  blogs to see what you are all doing - some lovely work out there on show.

I am also entering this card into Pixie's Snippets this week - after all, the card was free old stock, and the one stamp was free with a magazine ages ago.  So, Di, please will you let me into the playground next week.  (I have missed this week).   I miss having my go on the swings.

Blooming corners again

I really love this Blooming Corner kit from Clarity, and keep finding new uses for it.  I needed a wedding card to send to America, so it had to be thin, but still be stylish.  I found the photo on the groom's Facebook site and used Roxio Photosuite to cut the circle out and fade the edges.  After printing it on to Clarity card, I stamped the images around it.  Promarkers, several layers of them to get the density of colour, gave me the shades I wanted.  Once it was cut to size, I brayered the edge in yellow to shade it in.

Matting and layering was done using purple sparkly card and pearlescent white.  I chose not to put a sentiment on the front so that it could be framed afterwards if desired.  All the writing goes on the insert, together with a border of stamped flowers and a brayered edge.

I hope this card does justice to Barbara Gray's stamps.

You may have noticed that I have not been blogging much lately.  I still love you all, but I feel it is unfair for you to take the time to leave me lovely comments when I have not even managed to answer some of yours from two or three weeks ago.  Once I have dealt with my backlog of cards, potting up plants, planting out and generally dealing with life, not to mention rotten and unreliable internet access I will be back.  I have still been looking at some of your lovely work and desks.  Having just looked at my filthy, glittery, mica covered keyboard, I see another urgent job to do.  See you all soon.

WOYWW - 156 Back from holiday

Thank you to those who emailed me to see if I was well, because I had been missing in action for a couple of weeks.  Your thoughts are so welcome and appreciated.  I am absolutely fine.  My reasons for being missing were holiday, a week in Norfolk.  Whoever decided we should travel on a Friday wanted shooting - I am sure it was not me.  The traffic was dreadful, especially around Norwich, with so many changes of lane and islands to negotiate, especially with a caravan on the back.  Our longest delay, though, was for the apparently notorious Elveden crossroads and traffic lights - we queued for over half an hour before we even got to them. 

We arrived on site around 3.30pm in brilliant sunshine, to be met with a very welcome cup of tea from the site wardens, before being shown to our pitch, just next to the dog walk - ideal for first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  We just had time to set up and put the awning up before the rain set in.  For the next three days, we did not turn the heating off in the caravan, and if you poked your nose out of the car at the sea, you risked having it blown off.

Then on Tuesday, we woke to brilliant, wall to wall sunshine and heat, and spent the rest of the week dodging from shade to shade to avoid sunstroke.  We had a great trip on the Broads from Wroxham, round a couple of the closer Broads, and the dogs were totally exhausted by having to be good and quiet and still for so long, tucked under the table between us.

Wednesday was harder, a walk round the grounds of Sheringham Park.  It would have been fine if we had not taken the signposted"short cut" back to the car park - BIG mistake, hard walking and in full sun (the moral was don't take short cuts - they take longer with much harder walking, and mobility scooters don't work on them).  On the positive side, the azaleas were glorious and beautifully perfumed, well worth seeing .

Our last day was spent on the Bure Valley Narrow Gauge Railway.  Again, very tired dogs, having to be so good for so long, again tucked under our feet in the shade.

My only crafting for the week was crocheting Jozarty's shawl/scarf, and I now need to find a charity shop with necklaces to take apart for the beads I need for the finishing touches.  Since getting home, I have spent a fortune online.  I needed some batteries for the smoke alarms and a few other bits of equipment, a Tilley Hat to protect me from the sun (have you noticed the change in weather already) and a batch of Aran wool to knit a sweater for my husband, the same as the one he used to have - that will keep me going for a while.

Sorry if this has been a little longer than ideal, Julia, but I have missed two weeks, so I hope you can forgive me.  Our internet connection while we were away was dreadfully slow and unreliable, so I soon gave that one up.  I hope you will find lots more desks to wander round if you just call in at Julia's Place.  If you are kind enough to visit me and leave a comment, I will do my best to get back to you asap.

Mica powders and Clarity adhesive sheets - messy fun!

This card is as a result of watching Barbara Gray on Sunday, and was great fun to do.  It uses Clarity Adhesive sheets, and the Clarity Lovescape set of stamps, and a mixture of mica powders.

I am not going to presume to tell you how to do this technique, I am not good enough.  What I will say though is that it is great fun to do, and I am still very inky and everything in sight is covered with shimmery mica.  The design is mounted onto Clarity white silk card, and then covered with Clarity film to protect the micas.

The base card is pale blue pearlescent, a ready folded card from stock, which I thought set off the mica colours best.  The sentiment is again, my one and only Happy Birthday stamp, used with a blue Adirondack (my brain has gone as I cannot remember which one).

I am now in the middle of trying to find a good way of backing it onto black card, but I need to go back to the drawing board for that one.  if I get it right, I will show you later.

Less is More - Yellow

This card is for this week's challenge for Less is More, which is to use the colour yellow.

I have to give credit for the sun idea to Emma Williams, who is one of Barbara Gray's talented team of designers.  I saw it done on one of her Create and Craft samples, and stored the thought away for future use.  It is just a case of dividing up a semicircle into segments and sponging different shades into each one.  I used one of the Big and Juicy ink pads, the Soothing Sunset one, and sponged direct on to the plain white card.

The glorious unicorn is from the Dufex range, and is one of a set of decoupage.  I just used the second layer as I wanted it to stay simple.  Sadly, a plain photo does not really do the unicorn justice as it catches the light beautifully.  I am very fussy about unicorns and they have to be good models of a horse before adding the horn.  This one is not too bad from that point of view. 

The sentiment is my one and only "Happy Birthday" stamp, and that again was stamped using the Soothing Sunset, covering two separate sections of colour to shade it slightly.

WOYWW - 153

My desk is a little tidier this week, mainly due to the fact that I wanted to play with mica powders today, and I did not want them mixed with everything else in sight.  You may wonder why I am showing you my desk and all that is on it.  After all, you may be new to the world of craft blogging, everyone is new at some time, and if you are, then you are very welcome.  Wednesdays are the days when our Lady Julia hosts us all at her place - Stamping Ground.  She very kindly allows us to join together and have the chance to get more inspiration from the work of others, and share our ideas and encouragement.  Some desks will terrify you and some will astound you, but you are welcome to all.  We just ask that you are patient with us and leave us a comment if you like what you see or have ideas to add.

I do have a couple of piles of projects off to the side, but not as much as usual.  Another reason for my tidy up was to find my Clarity Stamps Lovescape kit.  I knew I had it but it had got split up and distributed around my room.  You can see some of my mica powders and the brushes to applying them at the back on the right.  The little orange thing is my Fiskars finger scalpel, which is so easy to control as it becomes an extension of your finger.  My Ottlite is on show too, but as I took the photos on Tuesday afternoon, I did not need my light.  I could make do with that lovely yellow orb in the sky - I seem to remember it is called a sun, and it helps to make us warm too.  There is a small Really Useful Box at the back full of Promarker pen tops - I have changed all mine to the fine nibs, which I can remove if I really need to.  The yellow rubbish is the trimmings from the Clarity Adhesive sheets, which I used to make the two little pictures on top of the stack of white copy paper.

This is the first time I have tried this technique and it shows - I need a lot more practice to get the results I want.  I need to watch Barbara Gray a lot more to see where I am going wrong.  I think I need to take more time to mix my colours better before I start  - I never was the most patient person.  Slowly, slowly, catchee monkee, as the saying goes.  I am certainly not doing it justice at the moment.

I am off to bed now, so I shall be scheduling this post and link in properly when I get up.  I struggled to get round to all my visitors last week, and was horrendously late with some visits, for which I apologise.  I will try hard to do better this week, but please forgive me if I do not get there.    Thank you to all those who took the trouble to pop in during the week.  I really do appreciate all of you and especially what you have taken the trouble to write in your comments.

Pixie's Snippets Challenge 18

I actually managed two offerings for Di's Snippets Challenge this week, mainly by hunting through bits and pieces I had been playing with.

This first one uses another stamp from Barbara Gray's Clarity range.  I did the topper ages ago and it has just been sitting around in one of my many heaps of things to do.  It nearly had a complete disaster today, when I suddenly realised I had stuck it on the card upside down, but, fortunately, the silicone glue was very forgiving and allowed me to just lift it off and replace the right way up.  It was stamped onto Clarity paper, with Adirondack Slate, and then I think it was brayered with Big and Juicy Mountain Meadow. It was a while ago, and I did not write it down, so I am just guessing.  I think it is a lovely stamp, well two stamps anyway, and very adaptable.  I mounted the topper onto Clarity black card to try to keep the oriental feel.

This second offering was another play around with various stamps, and a bit of digital tweaking as well.  The trees were stamped, and then scanned, so that I could place them as I wished, changing the sizes to fit the perspective.  The church and the horse and carriage are Clarity stamps, while the fence is just put in with a thin black pen.  I used Adirondack Cloudy Blue and Slate for the sky, and just the Slate for the foreground.   It had been intended for the Craft a Scene Silhouette Challenge, but it did not go quite as I had intended.

Having now got into the playground in time for registration, I am now off to have a go on the swings, before heading out the the greenhouse to pot up some new plants, and hoping they do not die of frostbite this week.  Watch out, folks, for the icy slide over in the corner of the playground, and don't fall in the mud.  see you all soon.  xx Maggie

PS I hope you are feeling much better this week, Di, and ready to enjoy life again.  Take care of yourself.

Craft a Scene - Silhouette

I am quite cross with myself over this challenge.  When I first saw the brief, I thought "Great, I have loads of ideas for that one".  Sadly, those ideas never saw the light of day, as I got bogged down with other things, cards that were needed urgently, gardening, family ....  You know what it is like.  So here I am right at the last minute, throwing something together.

It is  a serious mix of stamps and styles.  The background is a Stampscape Stamp, which I received this morning from Nancy, as part of my prize for the Moonlight challenge - thank you, Nancy.  As you can see, I did not waste any time using this one.  It was not quite long enough, I did not measure my card first, so I managed to tack on another bit at the end.  The horse and carriage is from Barbara Gray's Clarity range.  Both images are stamped with Adirondack Pitch Black.  The sky is brayered with Adirondack Cloudy Blue, then over-brayered with Adirondack Slate.  The foreground is just the Slate.  The topper is then mounted onto silver mirri paper, and then onto Clarity Black card.

Next month, I am hoping that I might get at least one card done in good time, rather than a rush at the end.  Mind you, my school work was always done in a rush at the end, so nothing changes, does it?

WOYWW - 152

I was missing in action last week, mainly because I knew I would not have time to visit many people and I thought it was unfair for you to visit me, when I could not return the favour.  However, the mad panic to get cads done for this month is over and I am now working to do June and July.  So I am back, although a bit late, and here is my desk, well part of it anyway.  I am in the middle of putting inserts in cards that were already made, so that I do not have to panic when we come back off holiday.

You can see three that are now done, and with their envelopes, and to the left, a pile waiting for their inserts.  The little orange handled thing is my favourite Fiskars finger blade, which I find so much easier to use than my normal straight blades.  to the right of that are my sprung Fiskars scissors, and next to them the puffer brush for cleaning off photographic slides before scanning them.  As you can also see, my little Scottie is proudly displaying my beautiful WOYWW badge this week - it matches his coat perfectly.

I hope you have all survived the dreadful winds and rain, and no-one is suffering from floods.  We woke up on Sunday morning to find we had lost one of the trees on the island in front of our house.  We think it was a Mountain Ash, which are notoriously touchy at the best of time.  What amazed us was the almost total lack of root system on it, so it would always have been vulnerable to damage.  Fortunately it fell in a way that saved those near from damage, not like another tree not far away which fell across a main road, crashing into several new cars on the Volvo forecourt.  That tree had a preservation order on it and was huge.  At least, no-one was hurt.

I am looking forward to visiting as many as possible of you this week, but it may take a while so please be patient.  In the meantime, I hope you will find time to visit many more of the WOYWWers, hosted by the indefatigable Julia at Stamping Ground.  See you soon.

"Less is More - How Charming" and "Pixie's Snippets Challenge" No 16

This is my entry for this week's Less is More Challenge, the theme of which  was "How Charming!"  - to make and/or use a charm on your project.  This is one of those cards that really does not photograph well.

The base card is a deep purple card from PDA Cards and Craft, which I had already messed up, so I used it to play with rubbing mica powders into and around, mainly gold.  I had a small piece of deep purple mirri card which I put into the centre, and intended to put a complete Dufex decoupage on.  However, after I had stuck the base layer down, I looked at it and decided to leave it at just that one layer, and let the design speak for itself.

I did feel, though, that she needed a fan to hold, and spent a long time playing around with paper fans and all sort of other stuff, until I remembered that Shaz Silverwolf had told me about some embellishments being sold cheaply at The Works in town.  I had stocked up, including some silver coloured fans.  Now, silver just did not go at all, so it was out with the Dufex pens to colour one in to see how that worked.  It did take a bit of playing around to get just the right tone of gold, but, in the end, I think it worked.  I was able to just tuck the loop of the fan under her hand and, with a dab of silicone, glued it into place.

The final flourish was a thin peel off, just to give a frame for the main image.  I wish these cards showed up better on a photograph, but photos do not show shimmer and the play of light.  Perhaps we ought to do videos of this type of card.  My only other problem with this card is to find someone to send it to, someone that I can bear to let it go to, because I like it so much and I know I can never repeat the design as well.

I am also entering this into Pixie's Snippets Challenge,as it was put together with things from various bits and pieces I already had.

Less is More - Doodling

I nearly didn't enter this card for this week's Less is More Challenge, which is Doodling.  Looking down the other entries to date, I was so impressed with the wonderful work already posted, this card nearly ended up in the bin.  Everyone is so talented.  However, as you can see, I persisted and finished the card, and I am not too displeased with the result.

The outline of the sentiment is printed from the computer  (my writing is far too erratic to use) and then coloured in with Promarkers.  The outline of the vase and flowers are from Clarity Stamps Versatile Vase Kit.  I did go over the outline with my fine line black Staedtler pen.  I had done a test card on copy paper and found that the black of my stamp and the black of my pen were not quite the same.  I had forgotten that black has a huge number of variants, so I just went over the stamp to sort that out.  The flowers are just simply coloured with my Promarkers.

The vase itself is my first real attempt at Zentangle, and I did enjoy trying it out.  I tried to choose designs that would emphasise the roundness of the vase shape.  I think that one of the crafty things I shall take away on holiday this year will be a pad of paper and a thin black pen. so I can play in any free moment I have.

I shall do my best to get round as many of the other entries as possible this week (what I have seen so far, they are truly impressive), but please excuse me if I don't make it to everyone.  Things like gardening and visiting friends is starting to nibble away at my crafting time, and I have a lot of cards to complete before the end of the month too.  However, I do promise to visit anyone who visits me and leaves a comment.

WOYWW - 150

One or two people complained last week that I restricted the view of my desk to hide the worst of the mess.  I have had a little bit of a tidy up today, putting away the equipment from the cards I have just finished, so there is room to do the next project.  For those who are now wondering why on earth I would bare my desk to the nation (well, Blogland, anyway), it is Wednesday, which means the wonderful blog hop hosted by Julia, which is when we all wander round and see what all our friends have got on their desks.  If you want to join in, just go to http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/.  some of us are tidy and some of us are not.  Like all friends, you must take us as you find us.  Whatever, you will find a real welcome, especially if you leave a comment, and if you need help or just a friendly word, you will find it there.

As you can see, I have been well looked after with hot drinks today.  I really must take the dirty cups downstairs when I go in a minute or two.  You may have realised by now that the photos were taken on Tuesday afternoon to take advantage of the natural light, but I still needed my Ottlite as the rain was hammering down (I know we need it).  My project for today is a bit of zentangle.  I have not done much of that, but I thought I would have a go for a challenge.  If it works, I can use it for a birthday card with a difference.  It is a combination of the Versatile Vase kit from Clarity, and a printed sentiment, which can also be zentangled.  To the side of that is another Clarity image - the two poppy stamps which fit together beautifully.

Moving to the left, you can see my computer monitor.  The wallpaper on the screen is one of my own photos of Marwood Hill Gardens in North Devon, a beautiful and very welcoming place to visit (dog friendly, too, we were met with dog biscuits for our two).  I love the beautiful silver birch bark on those trees.  You might also spot on the desk a little pot of natural dog treats.

Above my computer is a small notice board, on which you can see the lovely tag specially done for me by Debbie, a photo of the wedding of one of my school friends, ready printed to take to our annual reunion this weekend.  There is also my Patience Strong calendar, printed out from the Joanna Sheen CD.  I managed to pull it apart a couple of months ago, but I did finally get round to putting it back together again today.

As Julia has asked us to be brief, I think I had better finish for this week, and give you time to get round a few more desks.  Could I just add one little plea?  Blogger seems to have turned on the Word Verification on a lot of blogs over the last couple of weeks.  Please could you all check if this has happened to you?  If you do have it turned on, you may find that you are not getting as many visits as you do normally.

I will apologise if I am not very quick in getting round to visit you, but I will do my best.  Like many others, i now find it impossible to visit everyone each week, and find time to craft as well.  If you leave me a comment, especially if you add your number, I will get to see you asap.  I also visit anyone whose number fits the rule I have chosen for this week.   Have a great week, everyone.

Pixie's Snippets Challenge 15

 Not a lot to show for the snippets this week, sorry, Pixie.   I suddenly realised that I needed to complete six cards for my friends for next weekend.  Four of us meet up once a year, rotating round the houses, and next weekend is the date for this year.  We were at high school together, and were always very close, although we did not meet up much after school and university were over.  Since we have created our official yearly reunion, we have been lucky enough to have fabulous weather for it, so fingers are firmly crossed for next weekend.

As the Post Office has seen fit to hike the cost of stamps to such a tremendous amount, I decided that I would take all their birthday and anniversary cards with me for them to open on the relevant days throughout the year.  At least I can be sure they will arrive and not be battered in the post.

However, I did manage to put together a couple of cards for the playground from bits that had been started last year.  Both images were printed out last year, so I am not 100% certain where they came from.  I think that the cornflower is a Clarity stamp, but the poppy is definitely a digital image.  I am seriously into poppies at the moment, they are simple flowers and show the shading well. 

I hope I am going to make it into the playground this week as I am running late again.  If I get there, I will meet you over by the hopscotch place.  Have fun, all of you, and thank you, Di, for being such a patient and kind head teacher. 

WOYWW 149 Follow on - Narrow Boats interpretation

Working Narrow Boat "Aquarius"

When you go to caravan rallies, you can have a follow on rally afterwards.  We had our usual WOYWW yesterday, so this is my follow on explanation.  A number of people gave me credit for having drawn the boat myself.  I wish!!!  I am not that talented.  So I thought I should make things clear.  I am not clever but I do enjoy manipulating images to get what I want.  That is my excuse for this post.and I am sticking to it.

For those of you who saw my canal boat card yesterday on WOYWW, I thought you might like to see the original photo from which I took my traced image to add to my Clarity stamps.

Traced and inked image of "Aquarius"

The first thing I have to tell you is that it is a narrow boat, not a barge.  If we ever slipped up and called it a barge, we got thoroughly told off.  The majority of the canal network will only take the narrow boats, and not the bigger Dutch Barge types, and some locks will only take the shorter narrow boats.

The hardest part, once the tracing was done, was to stick to what I could actually see on the photo and not to add in the things I could not see, but know are there.  For example, I know there is some beautiful sign writing on the side of the tiny living quarters, which is just not visible due to the angle of the photo.  The size of the card also limited the amount of detail that could be fitted in.
 

Traced and inked image of bridge before I reversed it

The same criteria really applied to the bridge too.  The picture I took that from was actually reversed so that the tow path was on the opposite side.  This did not fit in with using the stamp of the horse, and it was easier to reverse the bridge than to reverse the horse.  I could have been very nit picky and drawn all the bricks on the bridge, but I think that would have been too much detail for the size of the image, hence the artistic licence again and the roughly drawn huge blocks.   All bridges are numbered, as far as my limited knowledge tells me, so I chose the number of this bridge knowing that they would have travelled beneath it at some time.

Final Result (unless I decide to titivate it a bit more)

The colouring part of this card did show up the fact that I need more and varied greens, both in ink pads and Promarkers to get the real depth I wanted.  Failing that, a lot more practice in blending what I have to get the desired results.

Ingredients used:

White paper

White Centura pearl card

Copper Krylon pen

Tracing paper

Clarity Stamps - Horse, herons, bullrushes small and large (Canal barge Kit),  Geese (Small village set)

Adirondack ink pads: lettuce, cloudy blue, juniper, pitch black

Cut and Dry brush nibs

Promarkers: various

Pencil for tiny detail, like the fence on the hill and the obelisk

Brayer

Make up sponges